


We're Not Friends... We're Not Rivals... We're Just Something Else

by emperorpenguin (dortmundbvbbabe)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nolan is a soft boy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 07:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11436171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dortmundbvbbabe/pseuds/emperorpenguin
Summary: Nico had never wanted to be Nolan's friend, he just wanted to be drafted first. It wasn't personal, but he knew that most of the draftees who went one-two had rivalries that followed them in the NHL. Nico knew this, the reporters knew it, it just seems like Nolan didn't get the message. As they go through the draft, though, Nico and Nolan get closer seeing as they are best able to understand the other's perspective. Suddenly, being Nolan's friend becomes more important than going first and along the way, Nico realizes that he doesn't just want to be friends with Nolan.





	We're Not Friends... We're Not Rivals... We're Just Something Else

The thing was Nico wasn’t there to make friends. Perhaps that was a cliche like something from a shitty American reality TV series, but that was the truth. He hadn’t moved to Canada just to be at the top of the draft class to make friends. He wasn’t mean, though. His parents had raised him better than that, but there was a clear distance that he intentionally placed between him and the other draftees. Some draft classes were close. Nico had seen footage from the 2015 draft and there was a semi-exclusive clique of Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome, and Mitch Marner that the NHL videographers picked up on. It was good when there was banter between the athletes- it raised the stakes. The producers of the video clips loved it even more when there was a rivalry. That was what had been played up between Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel and then again between Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine. This year it was between Nico and Nolan Patrick.

Nico could deal with rivalry. He didn’t hate Nolan Patrick; he didn’t really know Nolan Patrick enough to hate him, but that was what made the rivalry even easier. Nico didn’t like Nolan, and Nolan didn’t like Nico. It wasn’t personal, if things were different and they had been drafted as teammates, who knows they could have even been friends, but like he said, Nico wasn’t here to make friends.

The other guys who rounded out the top five or ten prospects were all friendly with each other. Some knew each other better than others, but there were no other Brandon Wheat Kings or Halifax Moosehead teammates for Nolan or Nico to hang out with. They had good reports with the other guys but there was still a noticeable difference between the two who were still battling it out for first place and the rest of them who were just happy to be at the top of their draft class. They were all traveling together on some sort of odd road trip to meet with prospective teams and with each stop there were more medical tests, interviews, and of course questions about Nolan. Nico knew he sounded repetitious, they all did, when they were asked the same questions over and over again. “What are your strengths as a player?”, “Where do you see yourself on this team?”, “How have you grown as a player over the past few seasons?”

His patience was being tested with the unoriginality of the questions. On the occasions when Nico did a group interview, usually including Nolan, he could tell the others were getting tired of answering the same questions in the same ways over and over again. Nolan answered everything in the same polite monotone voice that he always had when interviewed. It was part of the process of getting this far. The most annoying part, though, were all of the questions that concerned Nolan. It was bad enough that the newspapers seemed to have the draft locked in. Nolan would go first and then Nico would go second, but it was annoying to have to talk about Nolan almost as much as he talked about himself.

“He’s a good player, obviously,” Nico said. He would always give bland answers because he couldn’t say the truth that he really didn’t care about Nolan. He wasn’t going to pretend that they were friends, though. 

“What do you think about him complimenting you?” A reporter towards the back of the room asked.

_ Huh? _ Nico wasn’t quite sure what they were talking about, but pasted on a smile. “I’m flattered obviously. I have a great deal of respect for Nolan and I’m glad to see that’s reciprocated.” A few more questions followed, but Nico was curious to see what Nolan had said about him. As soon as he was permitted to leave, Nico took out his phone and looked for the latest news articles. “Nolan says Hischier is ‘an even better guy’ than player”. 

Nico smiled slightly before closing out of the article. Thankfully, all of the events for the day were over except for a casual meet and greet after dinner. He just wanted to go back to his hotel room and take a nap. Most of the other guys had had a little more free time, so Nico was pretty much the last draftee there until he ran into Nolan.

“Hey,” Nico said.

“Hey, how’d it go?” Nolan asked.

“Good, the usual stuff, you know. How about yours?” Nico asked to be polite.

“Good, I think. I don’t really know, they don’t really show what they are thinking,” Nolan said.

“Yeah, well…” Nico gestured in the direction of his hotel room to casually leave the conversation, but Nolan stopped him.

“Have you eaten yet?” Nolan asked.

“No, I just wrapped things up,” Nico said.

“Good, let’s grab something. I mean, if you want to,” Nolan said realizing he’d almost forced Nico into coming.

“Sure,” Nico found himself agreeing much to his own surprise. “Let me just grab some money, okay?”

 

They weren’t friends and they probably weren’t going to be, but Nico realized that Nolan had no intentions of being in a rivalry, and if that was the case, well, Nico would just have no competition, then. Then they could get along fine. 


End file.
